


nirVana

by JoanneKaiser



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi, bloodswap au, inverse!hemospectrum
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-10 20:57:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoanneKaiser/pseuds/JoanneKaiser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Awkward silence prevailed not for the first time.<br/>'I'm not a god,' Karkat tried, his voice cracking.<br/>'I know.'"</p><p>(A potential universe. Inverse Hemospectrum- Karkat is Tyrian, Feferi is a mutantblood.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hush

 

**nirVana  
Chapter 1: Hush**

The holograph shimmered dizzyingly in the water, light and colour softly filtering through into their designated places. It lent him a sort of mystical aura. He was an average troll in terms of looks, even sub-par; his eyes were too wide, his horns too short, his cheeks and jaw too round.  Clad in dark grey cloak and tyrian accents, he was wiggler-faced but serene. Ageless. The face of a god.

Karkat glared spitefully at the apparition from where he sat cross-legged on the floor, scowl etched deep into his young features. Neither wished to cave in first and shatter the pregnant silence. They just stared at each other.

"The least you could do," Karkat snapped, breaking first as always, "is pull out your guard drones. If I want to go ashore, I'm within my rights to do that. You can't stop me or keep me under siege, or whatever you're trying to do to me. And I'm not about to get myself assassinated by some glubfisted brownblood."

A nearly imperceptible smile tugging the corners of his full, dark lips, the Emperor sighed wearily. What a burden an heir could be. The young troll ground his teeth, hands itching to draw sickles and lash out at what was only empty water.

"I may never understand this fascination you have with the surface. Do you not keep occupied well enough with your studies, your training, that you feel the need to roam the land? I thought I taught you better than to associate with the impure castes." The Emperor spoke in a measured, hushed tone, all precise words and even beats. The faint smile could still be seen, a ghost hanging at the corners of his mouth, and he affected an air of bashfulness. It all drove Karkat over the fucking moons.

Glower deepening, he ground out, "Why do you give the first fin-flipping shit what I do in my spare time? There are at least a dozen things I can conceive of off-hand that _you_ should be occupying yourself with instead of attempting to leash and collar me! For one thing, there's running your fuck-forsaken Empire. Think of all the hapless morons you could enslave instead of wasting an hour on a lecture about how to live my life!"

"But you are more important than all of that."

Karkat snarled, his fins flaring out aggressively at his ancestor. These check-ups came every perigee, right on time, and the smug asshole never failed to get right under his skin. "Whatever you say, you possessive bulgeslit. Can we be done here? Or did you want to run me through another lap of utter horseshit?"

The Emperor's lips tugged back up, and he demurely ducked his head to disguise it. "If you believe you are prepared to live without my protection, I will not refuse. But you have to say it first."

As though offended by what his elder had said, Karkat stiffened where he sat, outright bristled. He wasn't going to say it. All of the bribes on Alternia couldn't make him say it. He had said it too many times, and for most definitely the last time. No encores. He could slip past the drones on his own and hole up on the surface for awhile, he didn't have to give in, didn't have to--

"And so it came to be that a single troll suffered himself to rule all below him. For he was greater than them, and was their God; the Lord accepted his burden with grace and he is the greatest Lord we have ever known." The words, long ago memorised, rolled bitterly off his tongue. They were old, sacred words from rites of worship. Karkat wouldn't be surprised if the troll before him had written the passage himself.

"All praise my Emperor," finished the Lord of all trolls, cutting the transmission feed.

An abrasive, wasplike buzzing echoed in his earfins no more than a minute afterwards, alerting him to the departure of several dozens of guards posted in and around his palacehive. Thank god. He unfurled from his spot on the floor and paddled to his expansive respiteblock.

\-- crossbowAnarchist [cA] began trolling [cG] at 19:28--

CA: hey kar  
CA: kar  
CA: i knovv youre at hiVe you shit  
CA: kar come on  
CA: look you cant ignore me  
CA: not foreVer  
CA: vvhats takin you so long vvhy the fuck vvould you leaVe yourself online if youre not there  
CA: insolent douche  
CA: think youre too fuckin good for me dont you  
CA: like just cause youre set to inherit this godavvful empire a carnage youre such hot shit you dont eVen need to bother vvith a gutterblood like me  
CA: is that it kar  
CA: kar seriously vvhere are you  
CA: if anythin youd be the slimy one all delitescent in your undervvater caVes CG: 6: WHAT? WHAT IN THE UNHOLY GLUBSHITTING FIRES OF PERDITION COULD POSSIBLY BE SO IMPORTANT?!:9  
CG: 6: YOU DO REALISE THAT MY LIFE CONSISTS OF MORE THAN REVOLVING PLANETLIKE AROUND YOUR OBSESSIVE PALE NEEDINESS FOR ALL TWELVE MOONLIT HOURS OF THE NIGHT, RIGHT? AND DON'T START WITH YOUR FUCKING HIGHBLOOD GILLT-TRIPPING, I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A TRANSMISSION FROM THE NEGLIGENT LORD OF ALL SLIPPERY FUCKING EELS. :9  
CG: 6: I DIDN'T ENJOY BEING TORN FROM YOUR SLIMY GRASP ANY MORE THAN YOU DID. :9  
CA: im not slimy you ugly fish faced fuck  
CG: 6: ACCEPTING THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM IS THE FIRST STEP TO OVERCOMING IT, PRICK. :9  
CG: 6: AND TRUST ME, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. I GUESS IT'S PART OF WHAT MAKES IT SO ENCHANTINGLY AWFUL TO EXIST WITHIN A TWO-LIGHTSWEEP VICINTY OF YOU. :9  
CG: 6: HE CALLED OFF THE GUARDS, THOUGH. I'M FREE TO TRAWL THE SURFACE UNTIL HE GETS ANOTHER HALF-BAKED IDEA INTO HIS DAMAGED PANS ABOUT 'RAISING' ME. :9  
CA: vvhat  
CA: so you mean youre gon come  
CA: not that its a absolute calamity if youre still too good to hang out vvith us or vvhateVer  
CG: 6: YES, I'M GOING TO COME. TRY NOT TO MAKE A MESS OF YOUR ALREADY SHAMEFULLY TACKY STRIPED PANTS, IT'LL BE A REEL NOOKLUMP TO WASH OUT. :9  
CA: ha ha so sure of yourself  
CA: youre one to talk about tacky vvith your fuckin cyan svvimmin shorts  
CA: really though its been ages since i seen you last im startin to forget hovv ugly your pudgy cheeks are  
CG: 6: SHUT THE FUCK UP, I'M THINNING OUT. :9  
CG: 6: IT ISN'T MY FAULT THAT YOU AND YOUR CONTRABAND GOT ME A LITTLE SOFT FOR AWHALE. :9  
CA: i told you to take it easy on the shit but you vvouldnt listen  
CG: 6: OKAY, WHATEVER, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU CARP ABOUT THAT ANYMORE. NOBODY EVEN CARES, CERTAINLY AND ESPECIALLY NOT ME!! :9  
CA: youre really layin it heaVy on the puns tonight  
CG: 6: I'M STRESSED, WHAT THE TAINT-KNOTTING SHIT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? :9  
CG: 6: COHERENCE?! :9  
CA: sheesh dont get your globes in a tvvist  
CA: do you vvant to talk about it  
CG: 6: NOT RIGHT NOW. MAYBE LATER. I HAVE STUFF THAT I NEED TO GO DO. :9  
CG: 6: I THINK THE THING IS GETTING HUNGRY. :9  
CG: 6: I HEAR IT RUMBLING IN THE DEEP. :9  
CA: fantastic  
CA: vvell go feed it i dont vvant my pans gushin out my hear ducts yet  
CA: youre sure you can shovv tomorrovv  
CA: vve can talk about this then  
CG: 6: YEAH, I'LL BE THERE. DON'T KEEP YOURSELF UP INTO THE LATE AFTERNOON, QUIVERING IN ANTICIPATION. IS FEFERI GOING TO SHOW? :9  
CA: nah shes been sketchy as shit lately  
CG: 6: HER LOSS. :9  
CA: yeah  
CG: 6: DO YOU WANT ME TO TALK TO HER? :9  
CA: nah  
CA: eVerythins fine  
CA: sea ya <>  
CG: 6: UGH. :9

\-- consumedGerent [cG] ceased trolling crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 19:55\--

\-- consumedGerent [cG] began trolling crossbowAnarchists [cA] at 19:56\--

CG: 6: <> :9

\-- consumedGerent [cG] ceased trolling crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 19:56--

 

A giant flankbeast grazed in a field of rich, golden-brown grass, head low. Well-armoured shoulders towered over the plain, a white mountain of muscular flesh. Its horns were wickedly sharp, and its temperament not much gentler. Her eyes narrowed, carefully tracking each flick of its tail and each minute movement of muscle under tough skin. Out in the open, alone. Easy prey.

It was over in a swift rustle of her jacket and a flash of steel. A grazing cattle lusus couldn't protect its stomach. And a dead lusus couldn't protect its troll. Purring with satisfaction, the huntress hopped onto the carcass and yowled for her mother.

"The mighty lioness perches atop her masterful kill," she muttered smugly to herself, trilling her r's. "It is the ideal gift for her prince, and completely personalised! She thinks he will be very pleased."

There was a smattering of sticky yellow blood on her palms, and with her claws sheathed once more in their gloves she began to cheerfully lick it off. In no time, she heard the low growl that signalled Tigermom's approach, and turned towards her with a kittenish mewl. Scampering to the ground, she hugged her dear lusus around her wide, furry neck. Her arms barely reached the top. Tigermom snuffled and smeared the lapels of Nepeta's azure jacket with yellow blood from her recent meal. Carelessly Nepeta wriggled away and ran ahead; Tigermom dutifully picked up the large beast and dragged it behind her.

Thankfully the ocean was not very far from their hunting grounds. When they arrived, Karkat sat waiting for them, bare flippered feet sitting in the water. He had already taken her other presents below.

"Karkat, Karkat! Look what we brought!" Nepeta cried ecstatically, flinging her arms around his wet shoulders. "Oh! I mean, the ferocious huntress arrives, bearing gifts in her mouths for her most dearest fishy prince. She also thinks that he looks especially handsome tonight. Did he do his hair extra special, she wonders?"

She prodded him affectionately in the cheek while his fins fluttered indignantly at her. "The fishy prince invites you to get the fuck off of him."

"Hmmm..." She was immune to his surly attitude, and actually pretended to consider it, tapping her chin and scrunching up her cute little nose. Face twisting into a grin, she pecked him on the tip of the ear. "The huntress appreciates your offer, but is sad to say that she must decline. It's a matter of principle."

He forced a growl, but was unable to stifle the rush of fuchsia that lit up the thin membranes of his fins and dusted the rest of his slate-grey face. Nepeta's smile softened as she settled herself beside him, pulling her fingers through his coarse, sand-flecked hair.

Giving up on the tired hard-to-get act, Karkat sighed and let his head droop. "Look, it isn't you, I'm just not in the mood right now. Somefin feels wrong, and I've been on edge all evening feeling like my bile churners are about to turn themselves inside-out. I had to talk with our Lord to finally get those douchenozzle guards off my tail, and... you know that always throws me for a loop."

Nepeta nodded with patient understanding, while behind them Tigermom finished dragging the heavy carcass to the waterline and sat down to clean her fur.

"It's... He looks just like me, like he's not even nine sweeps yet, and he's always so fucking passive-aggressive, just smiling at me no matter what I say or do, or how hard I tell him to shove it up his aching nook. I just want him to leave me alone. He gets his scummy bloodied cinch digits worked so deep into the corners of my life and the way he looks at me makes me feel _seasick_." Karkat helplessly put his face in his hands, ears drooped.

"And I just keep thinking, what if one century I look up and I realise now it's- it's me?"

For all that she wished she did, Nepeta had no idea what to tell him. Karkat had always taken issue with the Emperor and his methods, displaying an intentional irreverence that still dismayed her; despite the glorious and holy empire he had provided for his descendent, Karkat gave him nothing but venom. She really did try to understand.

"Karkat," she sighed, stroking his chin with the back of her fingers. "You need to talk about this stuff with your moirail. I know it helps to just get it off your haunches, but he'll be able to help you a lot more than me."

Looking miserable, Karkat dropped his hands and shot her a gloom-dampened glare. Of course he would do that, sometime. Tomorrow, really. It wasn't his fault that his conciliatory brother lived too deep into the mainland for him to just stroll in whenever he pleased. Nepeta giggled, undaunted by his sour stare, and blithely kissed him.

"Oh, if I could fill all your quadrants, you know I would," she teased, earning a hint of that shyly genuine smile she strived to see.

"That's not even funny," Karkat muttered, unable to even pretend reluctance as he kissed back. "Saying shit like that. I feel not only embarrassed, but actually unsanitary for having heard it. I'm going to need an acid tongue bath to scrape all of this shame out of my chitin."

They joked for another few minutes, some of the strain beginning to fade from his back as the tide lapped past them, drawn by the pink moon. Nepeta's cerulean coat was soaked, as were her pants, but she stayed happily at Karkat's side. At least the water wasn't too cold. She purred low in her chitinous windpipe, warmer cheek pressed against the delicate outer membrane of his gills, and he was still smiling.

"Karkat _is_ going to see his moirail soon, isn't he?" Nepeta asked after a lull, quirking up her brow as she spoke to her matesprit.

"What are you, my lusus? I manage to get myself free of a whole horde of prying, mindless nookbiters just tonight, and now I have to deal with a renewed massive inquisition from you too? Yes I'm going to see him, not that it's any of your goddamn business who I lay my ganderbulbs on. I think he, Serket, Makara, and Zahhak are all going somewhere around his hive, and he'll probably come and pick me up a few radi-units from the shore."

Nepeta wrinkled her nose.

"AC has a feeling that her fellow hunter doesn't like her very much."

"Well that was a million-troll-caegar observation."

"And she is _serious!_ Hmph. She and the prince have been together for a long time, and Eridan still will not abide him bringing her to their silly lowblood playdates. Everyone else brings a date, and Equius always gets to go!"

This time Karkat wrinkled his nose, asserting, "They're not 'playdates,' Nepeta, they're contraband parties. We're not a bunch of translucent wigglers shitting around at a hiveproofed bonfire and toasting glubrolls as our abominable lusii watch from just over our nubs. The only reason Equius shows is that he would rather crucify his knotted, uptight bone bulge with the dull end of a culling fork than back drown from Gamzee's retarded black flirtations."

Giving an undignified snort of laughter, Nepeta punched him lightly in his bare arm. "Karkat may be a big important prince, but he should be careful to watch his mouth around dangerous girls! That's _my_ moirail you're talking about, shrimp."

"Doesn't mean I have to like the smelly freak! Maybe you're completely desensitized to the feeling of cool sweat oozing onto your chitinskin, but I sure as shit am not, and I don't need to put up with it."

She tugged herself away and glared up at him drily. Scolded, his slightly too-full lips formed a pout that belonged on a troll sweeps younger and his head jerked away. She rarely said a word against Eridan, despite his unnecessary rudeness and his bad attitude towards her, just because she was a highblood. He had told her to her face that the only reason she was not dead was his loyalty to Karkat. He _threatened to cull her_ , a noble azure huntress. And Equius, who would never dare disrespect anyone above him on the spectrum, was the freak? Anger rising painfully in her thorax, Nepeta shifted away, dragging herself out of the wet sand and to her feet. She had to fight herself not to smack him sometimes.

"Karkat probably needs to take his present down now, before the green moon sets for the morning. The Beast isn't going to be pleasant if he's hungry." Nepeta's tone was biting and strained, running through Karkat like her steel claws.

"Fine," he barked, springing to his feet. "Since you're so eager to chuck me back into the sea all of a sudden, like I'm some crusty plastic waste that washed ashore. And over what? So I think your moirail is a staggering douche. Why is it any concern of yours what I think? I know you and Eridan come to practically tearing out each others' galltubes whenever you're around him, but I never ride your case about it. And I bet you'd rather fight me tooth and nail over every little wrong word that's ever charged out of my gape hinge. Is that it?"

Yowling in frustration, Nepeta turned on her heel to face her shouting matesprit. "Would you shut up? He's a sweet troll, and you don't have any reason to be such a huge jerk!"

"At least I'm not acting like a soft-snubbed little girl- all I did was call him what he is! He's a creepy mutant who gets off just being in the same block as someone a few shades above him, and he sweats a river every time someone even looks at him funny. Did you know the bulgesmear built a fucking robotic likeness of me?!"

"You're a _god_ , Karkat!"

He reeled back, not only from the ear-splitting decibel of her voice, but the words she spat. Her expression was positively thunderous, and that was the last thing he could register before he realised that he was being tackled. Shouting in surprise, he fell onto his back. Air rushed painfully out of his amphibious lungs, stunning him for a second. Thankfully, he was able to grab onto her wrists before her deadly claws were deployed, and wrenched them away from his body with ease granted only by his seadweller's strength.

Restrained, Nepeta had no choice but to release her frustrations verbally. "You're supposed to be a god, and you act so surprised and-and-- and malicious when you find out that it's what trolls expect from you. You're not even the Emperor yet, but they worship you because of your stupid dumb royal blood! Equius is terrified of you! He's afraid that you'll cull him for being a mutant, just because he can't always control his powers, and if you're so awful to him in person I can understand why."

His breath came harshly, his pump biscuit racing, and Karkat found himself in the rare state that he could not find his voice. She stopped thrashing after a few minutes and fell slack. Only then did he relinquish his grip, allowing her to roll away and onto the damp sand beside him.

Awkward silence prevailed not for the first time.

"I'm not a god," Karkat tried, his voice cracking.

"I know."

 

\-- consumedGerent [cG] began trolling assassinsCub [aC] at 2:43 --

CG: 6: NEPETA? :9  
CG: 6: LOOK, I :9  
CG: 6: I'M **REELY** SORRY, OKAY? :9  
AC: ^33^ < *ac accepts his apawlogy*  
AC: =33= < *33ven though she has already done so at least thr33 times!!!*  
AC: =33= < *in fact, she finds his purrsistance a little worrisome*  
CG: 6: I JUST DON'T WANT TO WET THE COON WITH THIS RELATIONSHIP BY BEING AN INSENSITIVE DOUCHE. :9  
AC: ^33^ < *ac ashores her matesprit that his insensitivity has b33n furgiven, and nuzzles affectionately against his ch33k*  
AC: ^33^ < h33h33, aSHOREs, get it?  
CG: 6: FUCK IT, I SEARIOUSLY DON'T DESERVE YOU. ALL I EVER DO IS CUP MY SQUIRM AND ACT LIKE THE MOST SELF-IMPORTANT GASTRIC BUBBLE THAT EVER CLAWED PAST THE HOLY BEAST'S WASTE SPHINCTER. :9  
CG: 6: REMEMBER YOU DON'T *HAVE* TO FORGIVE ME FOR RUNNING MY BIG FAT SAVOR TISSUES, IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE OBLIGATED. :9  
AC: =33= < karkat, stop it!!!  
AC: =33= < i thought we broke you of this habit sw33ps ago  
AC: ;33; < *concerned, she gently takes his face in her paws*  
AC: ^33^ < i was upset befur, but i've talked to equius and worked myself past it  
AC: ^33^ < you should too  
CG: 6: UGH. WHY ARE YOU SO PATIENT WITH ME WHEN I SINK INTO THIS MOOD? IF I HAD TO DEAL WITH THE NEVER-DRAINING RESERVOIR OF ENTITLED MOANING, I WOULD HAVE SAID 'SEE YOU, PEASANT' AND FUCKED OFF AGES AGO. :9  
AC: =33= < *SIGH*  
AC: ^33^ < *karkat is just going to have to deal with the fact that efurryone makes mistakes, including him*  
AC: ^33^ < *no matter his faults or how much he denies it, he is a really great troll who always tries to be a good matesprit*  
AC: ^33^ < i couldn't ask any more from you  
CG: 6: YOU COULD NEVER ASK TOO MUCH FROM ME <3 :9  
AC: *33* < awwwww!!!  
AC: ^33^ < karkat, you are way too romantic, it cannot be healthy for me  
CG: 6: YEAH, YEAH. LAP IT UP, CATGIRL. :9  
CG: 6: I'M SURE THIS TIDE OF SAPPY, PATHETICALLY RED AFFECTION IS HILARIOUS FROM YOUR ANGLE. MY STICKY HEARTS ARE ABSOLUTELY DRIPPING WITH GOLD-INLAID COMEDY, JUST FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE. :9  
CG: 6: SHALL I CHOKE OUT SACCHARINE VERSES OF GOD-FUCKING-AWFUL POETRY NEXT? :9  
AC: ^33^ < noooooo, i really mean it  
AC: *33* < i thought it was sw33t  
CG: 6: OH. THANK YOU. :9  
AC: ^33^ < you're welcome  
AC: =33= < *ac hisses in annoyance as she notices the time*  
AC: =33= < grr!!! i have to go m33t up with vwhiskers for a flarp showdown  
AC: =33= < that big fat ch33tah is always out to nab my hard-won booty  
CG: 6: I OFFICALLY SANCTION YOU TO SCHOOLFEED THAT NASTY SKANK BACK INTO HER PLACE. 9:  
CG: 6: I'M SURE YOU'RE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE SICK TO SHIT OF HER MIND-WHISPERY, THIEVING CHUTEFUCKERY THAN ME. :9  
AC: =33= < don't worry, sugar, i'll take care of it  
AC: ^33^ < have fun tomeowrrow with 33ridan  
CG: 6: DON'T GET HURT, OKAY? NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT TO MAKE HER FEEL LIKE LESS OF A USELESS FAILURE TO HER SPECIES.:9  
CG: 6: DO IT QUICK AND DIRTY. KNOCK HER ASS-BACKWARDS INTO THE GROUND AND LET NO PERSONAL DECENCY ESCAPE YOUR WRATH. HAND HER GLOBES BACK TO HER AND END IT. :9  
CG: 6: SNAP HER SKINNY METAL WRISTS. :9  
AC: =33= < i'm leaving karkat <33 !!!  
CG: 6: ALRIGHT, FUCK, I'M GOING! :9  
CG: 6: PITY YOU. :9

\-- consumedGerent [cG] ceased trolling assassinsCub [aC] at 3:15 --

 

"Ho, Skyhorse!"

Karkat heard the guttural, affected growl of his moirail long before the red-haired troll touched ground behind him in a clatter of hooves and snorts. With two fingers, Eridan whistled for Karkat to get off his bubble butt and hop on the Skyhorse.  
  
"Evening to you too," he muttered, brushing dirt off the back of his lime-and-cyan swim trunks.

"You think I'm about to waste formalities on a filthy, stuck-up fuckin' pureblood like you?" Eridan sniffed, offering Karkat a hand up. Seeing the tyrianblood roll his eyes, he broke the cool facade with an ugly laugh. "Yeah, I'm only kiddin' you dumb shit. Good to see you, grab on."

When he became Emperor, Karkat decided- that is, _if_ he became Emperor- he was going to ban Skyhorses. He would never see another Skyhorse in his long, long life, let alone be forced to ride one. Clutching madly onto the loose, thick folds of his moirail's coat, grey scarf whipping against his head, Karkat kept his face buried in the small of Eridan's back as they zipped over the bleak Alternian countryside. Every time they dropped into a freefall, he screamed.

The entire trip could not have lasted more than twenty minutes, but each time he was left shaken to the core.

Feeling himself tremble, Karkat threw himself onto firm solid ground as soon as Eridan's lusus halted, a cluttered stream of curses jostling out of his protein chute. Seadwellers did not belong in the air. His body crunched against grass, browned and wilted from the strength of the second summer's sun and perennial droughts. Gamzee was the only troll waiting for them in the clearing that sat half a radi-unit from Eridan's very standard hive. He was sprawled out lazily with his limbs all akimbo and his eyes already half-glazed. His baggy t-shirt bunched up indecently to reveal the painful thinness of his thorax and the jut of his strut basin, and the airsick troll heaved him a sharp look.

"Gam, you complete piece of garbage! You dug in without us!" Eridan voiced his moirail's silent indignations, swinging himself off of his Skyhorse with a pat on the muzzle.

Makara stretched and chuckled, joints popping as he moved. "Ain't my fault you all were taking your sweet-ass time gettin' here. I had to get something into this roaring gut of mine, and you'd took the food snacks with you. So I broke out the pan-candy."

Eridan almost levelled a kick at Gamzee's unprotected side, but a quick, reprimanding bark from Karkat ended the curbstomp fight before it could begin. Growling, he plopped himself back on the ground and flared his fins out behind the cover of his hunched shoulders, while the maroonblood got onto his knees to rifle around in the grass for the unassuming box Makara had brought.

"Oh, quit being a wiggler for five fucking minutes, Ampora. He's still coherent, so I'm sure there's plenty of contraband left for you to shovel down your greedy glubgullet."

"You talk like you don't even want a taste!" The box finding its way into his grasp, Eridan crowed and knocked the lid off. Inside sat several cluttered helpings of what they, had they not learnt otherwise, would have taken to be small chocolates.

Eridan popped one into his mouth, mulling over the taste. Definitely more than chocolate. By the time he was finished with the one, the high thrum of his pulse seemed to ring heavily through his body and his entire head was filled with wonder- the world was far away and the green moon was so close, whispering to him while the dormant grass below him writhed.

Distastefully, Karkat watched him progress deeper and deeper into a magnificent contraband journey, eventually lifting his hands up to clumsily grab his moirail's cheeks. Gamzee put a hand over his mouth to stifle his mirth. He was just too easy.

"Bro, you should know by now," he reminded Eridan, who looked too absorbed in the intricacies of Karkat's face to notice, "it's better to take things a little more slowly instead of choking down the full dose at once. Now, I got no right to be telling you how or what to be doing, but I suggest you sit your pretty ass still for a sec, let it sink in."

"Gam. Gam. Shut up and-- god. I definitely feel it. Have you seen this? Look at Kar's eyes, they're like... Full of fuckin' asteroid belts of grey. Kar, you never said."

"Ugh. Why do you always insist on feeding this bumblefuck the reel-y powerful stuff? You know he can't handle it. Quit giggling, it's not funny! It's fucking depressing to watch. He has no idea what's even going on, you can't give the good stuff to a lightweight like him."

Eridan was now laughing uncontrollably, having crawled forwards to press their cartilage nubs together and instead ended up colliding their foreheads with a jarring thud. Karkat loosed a stream of angry curses, grabbing his moirail around the sides when he tried to wriggle away. Almost in tears, Eridan let himself go limp in Karkat's arms.

"Sit up, bulgesucker, you're more embarrassing than a bright ugly boil on the soggy underside of my seedflap, you are actually chafing my inner waste chute with the awful dry friction of your staggering fucking idiocy- motherfucker, sit up straight!" The lowblood, with an almost patronizing 'shoosh,' tapped his fingers against Karkat's lips and continued to lie prone.

"I would, Kar, I-- I really, really would. Can't you fuckin' do it for me? I'm boneless! I'm filleted!"

Throwing his hands up in the air with a shout, Karkat fixed a venomous gaze on Gamzee, only to find that they had been recently joined by a tall, stocky troll with his hair in a ponytail and deep yellow sparks dancing in his eyes. Zahhak stood with his lips pressed in a firm line and, Karkat guessed, his gaze averted. Guilt from his fight with Nepeta instantly rushed back in a crushing wave of self-loathing, and he averted his gaze too.

Against his will, Eridan was hoisted up into a sitting position by a brief psionic push, and Karkat felt almost nauseated by his shame. "... Thanks."

"My duty and my pleasure," Equius muttered in return.

The tension was thick enough to carve with his sickles. Thankfully, his garbage-for-pans bonelump of a moirail couldn't sense that around the shimmery haze of his intoxication, and gurgled half-incoherent nonsense into his jaw until Karkat was agitated enough to respond. Gamzee understood the sudden frigid atmosphere, and kicked Equius's legs out from under him while the yellowblood was distracted- being a psionic, he naturally caught himself before he hit the ground, but that didn't save the skinny troll from his seething anger.

"Kar, when I reincarnate... damn. Fuckin' forgot what I was about to say. The entire universe's just, it's just collapsin' and expandin' around us like a big, giant breathbook of matter an' energy, d'you get me? Like, you can't destroy nothin' for good or ever, so we all get recycled. That's how it- how it works"

Karkat rolled his eyes. "I've read scripture, Ampora, I understand the cycle of sacrifice."

Frowning with the intensity of a lightning storm, Eridan shook his head until the entire world turned 90 degrees. "No, no, that's not-- that isn't what I mean. Do you ever think that in death everythin' is sort of compounded? The serpent swallowin' his own tail, right, eventually the bastard's got to spit it out. He wises up. It's the very same thin'. The lowblood lives a short... see, it makes them better than the trolls who got it better off, an' they understand more, get closer to the... the zenith. So there's like, meanin'. Lowbloods mean more."

Fixing him with a squished, perplexed look, Karkat patted his irascible moirail on a cheek still soft with wiggler-fat. He was no stranger to blasphemy, but at least it was blasphemy with meaning. Eridan was just spewing from the wrong chute, tongue loosened by the drug- for the group's collective sakes, he quieted the maroonblood before any more nonconventional views got dredged up and Equius suffered a coronary failure.

For one, Gamzee had no patience for the intricate subtleties his kismesis attempted to bring to the spades-shaped table, and had been since occupying him with an oral violence that even trollkind would barely consider kissing, despite the incredible pain in his recently dislocated shoulder. In a bid for air the brownblood was thrown off by a strong arm of searing mind-energy. Freed, Equius's perked ears caught Karkat's next loud inquiry.

"So is Serket going to waltz her ass in, fashionably late, and stuff her glubhole with cheap salted crisps, or is she not going to bother showing her shamed face here at all? For some unfathomable reason you keep inviting the ugly nookweed to these things- I mean, whether or not she blows us off completely is no concern of mine, more like good fucking riddance, but the least she could do is pay you the barest of courtesies--"

"Sir?"

Karkat's rant skidded to a halt and his tyrian-flecked eyes snapped to attention on Equius's face. His mouth was still open, a broken fang showing beneath his short upper lip. Karkat would bet that he was practically having a panic attack over speaking out of turn. A faint sheen of sweat already glistened on his forehead.

After a beat, he prompted with a gruff, "Well don't just sit there with your hand ensconced in the damp, reeking crevasse between your shame globes. You already started talking. Speak."

His shoulders drooped; by the relief on his face it was not a slump of defeat, but a sudden lessening of stress. "I happened to check my trollian account this evening, before departing. There was a message to me from Miss Serket, informing me that due to a very strenuous battle yesterday she would be unable to make it. Apparently her metal appendage was severely impaired, and I should report to her hive when available."

Beneath the breathy, even tone he had always heard from the troll, Karkat detected honest-to-Empire _smugness_. A muscle twitched traitorously in his cheek, intimating his suppressed smile, and the two of them shared a look as though to ask, 'Are you in on this too?'

"I gotta say, I'm proud of whoever wrecked her."

"As am I, sir."

Feeling left out, Eridan muttered something about 'fuckin' higherbloods sharin' their dumb jokes,' as he tugged on a handful of Karkat's tank top; Karkat bumped foreheads with the glassy-eyed troll and earned an affectionate burble for his trouble. He shuffled under Eridan's dark coat for the unlabelled box of contraband, pulling out two and tossing one to a startled-looking Equius.

"Cheers."

 

\-- adroitGambler [aG] began trolling cabalsCompass [cC] at 9:00 --

\-- cabalsCompass [cC] is offline --

AG: Hey, Feferi.  
AG: Look, so I know we haven't always seen eye to eye to eye to........  
AG: I think you get what I mean.  
AG: And it's kind of a shame, 8ecause for such a freak you're actually kind of cool.  
AG: In hindsight, I think we can 8oth agree that Eridan was a pointless side-quest. My fangs have 8een out of him for a long time, and everyone else needs to get over it! >::::(  
AG: 8ut anyway........  
AG: You know those friends you mentioned?  
AG: The ones who are helping you.  
AG: Weeeeeeeell, after weeks of deli8er8ion, I've decided that I'd like to meet them too.  
AG: I've 8een getting a kind of vi8r8tion that tells me we all might have some similar goals.  
AG: So, talk to me.  
AG: I can play nice if I need to.  
AG: Catch you l8r, Peixes ;:::)

\-- adroitGambler [aG] ceased trolling cabalsCompass [cC] at 9:07 \--


	2. Tense

 

**nirVana**  
Chapter 2: Tense  


"Careful-- ow! You clumsy moron, you shocked me!"

Equius only barely refrained from cringing at the painfully sharp, grating pitch of his client's voice. It took still more effort to redirect the burst of anger that threatened to destroy all progress he had made on her repairs. Behind him, a bolt of psionic energy knocked several tools from his work bench, sending them clattering to the ground and serving only to further degrade his mood.

"Please, Miss Serket, I am quite sure there would be no further accidents if you would allow me to work in quiet. You understand, these mechanisms allow me no room for your distractions."

She treated him, of course, to little more than a dismissive sniff and a flick of her head. Having Equius visit every few weeks for a repair was becoming tiresome, and such a bother. If only he hadn't built the stupid thing so delicate- while the dexterity was incredible, nearly a perfect replacement for the arm she had lost, it sacrificed durability and, as she found out time and time again, was very easy to ruin.

Stupid cat-troll.

"You could tell your uppity moirail to lay off the handiwork next time," she yawned, leaning back on the counter and shifting the angle of the metal appendage. With a wince, Equius silently pushed her back into position.

She squinted down at the mechanic through her glasses, offended at his blatant use of psionics on her once again. What a show-off!

"After all," Vriska pointed out, adamantly slouching again, "she's the reason I got my arm lopped off to begin with. If not for me, the least she could do is save you the inconvenience of having to repair it again and again. It's not as though she and I are even a notion, romantically, so spiting me should not be so important as to come at her moirail's expense. Have you told her that? You really should. I would be sick of her selfish highblood attitude, too."

"Perhaps if you would stop cheating, I would not be inconvenienced by either of you."

She visibly bristled, a snarl curdling low in her protein chute- flushing as he realised his familiar impropriety with her, Equius ducked his head. "Listen here, you hulking loser. I understand that you don’t know the first thing about what I do, and I’ve been extremely tolerant of that. My Flarp character is a thief role. I’m pretty much the top rung of our sweep-group. I don’t have to cheat. Leijon just can’t stand the fact that I know how to worm through her pans and outrank her on the boards, so she accuses me of cheating and goes totally psychotic. There's nothing in the dumb rules against reading minds! She’s nothing but a sore loser who can’t handle how much better I am than her."

The yellowblood sat in frozen silence, his gaze fixed on the metal edge of his work table. He grasped desperately for control over the painful burst of upset wreaking havoc on the steel. A shuddering breath passed into him, and as the shrieking of metal ceased he noted that the table edge had folded under an inch, crumpled like aluminium. Vriska was eyeing him contemptuously, when he glanced up over the dark rims of his work-shades, unimpressed by the pathetic quashing of his emotions.

"I… apologize," he whispered after another quiet minute. He seemed to be more in control of himself, and with a deft flick of his hand a fresh towel soared out of his bag and into his lap.

Taking a break for a moment to dab the yellow-tinted sweat from his forehead, he amended himself. "I could always suggest to Nepeta that she cease rising to your campaigns, if you believe that will help. Failing that, I could recommend an auspistice."

Vriska pulled a face, lifting her arm up to inspect the new wiring. She could feel none of it yet, Equius having disconnected those circuits which linked to her sensory nervous system- even so, it looked fixed up enough that she could leave right now and get back to the important business of her life! A hot flicker of anger cut through the air, emanating from the kneeling troll, shocking her. She put her arm back down. The last thing she needed was to get shredded in some kind of psionic tantrum.

"She and I don’t need an auspistice. Weren’t you listening before? What we have between us is completely platonic, nothing kissy-faced about it. I can’t even think of stooping to that level."

"Nepeta is a blueblood," he replied firmly, twisting the thin threads of copper together, delicately swivelling his fingers to complete the motion. "She stoops to you."

What had been a grimace now warped into a snarl, which Equius pointedly ignored in favour of screwing a component back into place. He simply had to refuse to be distracted, refuse to be emotional, and soon he would be finished, walk back home, be left alone and in peace.

"You say that now." Vriska’s flesh hand squeezed into a fist.

She thought she heard him mutter something like, "How ominous," but perhaps that huffing sarcasm was just part of her obsessive imagination.

Another gruelling handful of minutes passed them, or trudged by them, before Equius sat back and towelled his forehead, smiling proudly at his craft. Nobody appreciated the finesse of his machines. Not until they had turned it all to shrapnel. Placing the repaired casing over the inner components, he sealed the arm shut and reconnected it to her nerves. Vriska jolted. She would never get used to that.

He insisted on running a few diagnostics first- testing the arm’s reflex, her sense, her responses- and his client was on the verge of exploding by the time he conceded to letting her back out into the world.

"Please remember not to wet your arm until the sealant has time to set," he instructed as he always did, planting his tools in his bag as he dried the remainder of his damp skin. "If at any point the fingers stall, or you lose sensation, the wiring has shorted out. Message me immediately, and move into a low-humidity block to preserve its integrity."

The bag slung itself around Equius’s shoulders, in that clumsy way which his psionics handled everything that was not his work.

He was showing himself out. Hesitantly, Vriska asked, "How was yesterday? I mean, did Ampora blow a gasket, or what?"

This made him pause, mull over his answer. How honest should he be? Eridan's drugged, angry mention of 'that chartreuse bitch' rang vaguely in his head, but that had been the most of it.

"He did not appear troubled by that," the yellowblood finally admitted. "And our august heir was pleased to hear you would be absent." Silence. He fidgeted, feeling as though he could not leave now without her dismissal. More silence. Silence stretching on into eternity, crushing him with his desire to get out of that hive, now.

He had just begun to really perspire when Vriska sighed, ran the metal hand through her mane. "Whatever."

His shoulders drooped in ease. "Good night, then."

Equius was floating towards home before she could shut the door.

\-- adroitGambler [aG] began trolling glorifyingCaveat [gC] at 18:05 --  
AG: Heeeeeeeey Terezi!  
AG: So how’s my a8solute favor8 pure8lood doing tonight?  
GC: you got up 3xtra 34rly just to k33p m3 4w4k3 d1dnt you >:/  
AG: Don’t flatter yourself. Zahhak insisted on fixing my arm at the fucking crack of sunset, and you happened to 8e online.  
GC: wh4t do you w4nt  
GC: 1 w4s pr3p4r1ng for my 3v3n1ng c3r3mony wh3n you show3d up  
GC: m4yb3 you would l1k3 to volunt33r 4s 4 s4cr1f1ce >:]  
AG: Just as weirdly sycophantic to the Empire as always, huh? Guess that answers one question.  
AG: Nice try though. Personal expense was never my thing, remem8er?  
AG: 8ut of course I have a loooooooong list of trolls I could ‘don8’ to your cause, if you were ever willing to start up our old game ;;;;)  
GC: vr1sk4 pl34s3  
GC: 4s 4dm1tt3dly 3njoy4bl3 4s 1 4lw4ys f1nd your m1nty fr3sh cr13s for 4tt3nt1on 1 th1nk 1m g3tt1ng 4 l1ttl3 too old for th1s w1ggl3rhood bullsh1t  
GC: 1 m4y not h4v3 1rons 1n the f1r3  
GC: not now th4t th3 moth3r grub h4s h4tched  
GC: but 1 d3f1n1t3ly h4v3 4 s4cr3d ch4l1c3 wh1ch could h4v3 you wr1tt3n 4LL ov3r 1t  
GC: >;]  
AG: Ouch. Why all the antagonism?  
AG: You used to 8e so much more fun, Rezi! Don’t you think you’d like to try 8eing less 8ORING again?  
AG: We totally domin8ed 8ack 8efore you got your 8lind ass dumped hard!  
GC: oh no. 1 4m not g3tt1ng mys3lf wr4pp3d up 1n your p3tty comp3t1t1ons 4g41n  
AG: Petty???????? Excuse you, those were all legitim8 campaigns against the MAN. You used to 8e a8le to see that.  
AG: As a matter of fact, you used to 8e a8le to see, period.  
GC: th4t do3snt h4v3 4nyth1ng to do w1th 1t  
GC: now you 4r3 th3 on3 who 1s 4nt4gon1z1ng  
GC: 4nd b3c4us3 of the 4rom4 of st4l3 l1cor1c3 on your words 1 must 4sk  
GC: do you und3rst4nd how 1ll3g4l 1t 1s to l34d on 4 roy4l 3m1ss4ry >:?  
AG: Do you understand how little I care a8out your terri8le, stupid laws? I have the right to lead on anyone I want!  
AG: 8esides, I was SO not even flirting. Great jo8 of 8eing completely out of line.  
GC: you so w3r3  
AG: I was not! You’ve gotten even more delusional than I thought.  
AG: Alright, so I will admit that my motives for contacting you have not 8een entiiiiiiiirely in the name of sport.  
AG: I thought that just may8e  
AG: (If I managed to tug the enormous pole out from 8etween your clenched waste sphincters!)  
AG: since we used to m8ke such an awesome team, I should invite you to 8e my ally.  
GC: no  
AG: What?  
GC: you h34rd m3  
AG: 8ut I didn’t even tell you what the plan is!  
GC: 1 dont c4r3  
GC: you w1ll h4v3 to f1nd som3 oth3r suck3r to w34v3 1nto your 1nsan3 plot wh4t3v3r 1t m4y b3  
GC: 1m not l3tt1ng you s3t m3 up 4s b41t  
GC: now 1f you dont h4v3 4nyth1ng 1nt3r3st1ng to s4y my 3v3n1ng r1tu4l 1s g3tt1ng cold  
\-- glorifyingCaveat [gC] blocked adroitGambler [aG] \--  
AG: Terezi, god dammit!!!!!!!!  
AG: This is more important than all of that you dum8 8itch!!!!!!!! Why won’t you just listen to me????????  
AG: I already said I was sorry >::::(  
\-- adroitGambler [aG] ceased trolling glorifyingCaveat [gC] at 18:24 --

There was a tiny, sopping troll, heaving ocean onto the sand from his wetly plastered mess of hair, and this little troll could give a look so baleful that Sollux almost turned away. He snickered, instead. With a growl that could fell forests, Karkat pushed the slick hair out of his face. Unfortunately, this all did nothing to alter the illusion of a disgruntled pawbeast cub.

"This had better be fucking good, sparky, I was trying to watch a film."

Sollux shrugged, but only for the quiet sound of Karkat’s teeth grinding together in irritation. He wouldn’t have walked to the shore if it hadn’t been something important.

"Actually, I had a favour to ask of you," he responded, flippant. "It struck me the other night that—"

"For the millionth time, there is no way in all of fin-flipping salvation that I’m going to facilitate any more stunted, confused black sentiments between you two assclowns! And I swear to fuck if you ever drag me out of the sweet primordial ocean for this bullshit again, I’ll skewer you before you can turn to haul tail from my beach. Are we communicating on the same wavelength here? Do you understand the vibrations ringing in your hear ducts right now, you glittery spongecrammer?"

The blueblood developed a glazed look, perfected from sweeps of being on the receiving end of these tirades. As usual, Karkat was taking this so far out of context. This had nothing to do with the self-important little redblood who had been a few steps from riding his nook for sweeps; once he stopped to catch his breath, Sollux lifted his arms, palms out, as in a surrender. This earned him a befuddled look, and he accepted it with an artificially filed-down grin.

He quirked one eyebrow above the rim of his two-toned visor. "Holy shit, KK, not everything is quadrants with me. Calm down. I actually came here to talk about some more important business than who I’ll be pailing senseless this morning."

Karkat snorted in that low class way he had picked up from Eridan- he sounded exactly like that freak when he did that- and folded his arms across his thorax. The gold bands all up his arms clinked softly. He only ever seemed to put on jewellery for him. Or was that too presumptuous of him to think? Maybe he only didn’t wear all the shiny, gaudy gold to keep his lowblood friends off his bone bulge. Back at his hive, deep beneath where no air-breather was permitted, Sollux would bet that the walls were inlaid with the stuff, rooms abounding with the collections of the Empire's hoards and stockpiles from every planet that had been razed with holy light…

"Huh?" Sollux blinked a few times, trying to refocus on the tiny, and now even more irate, seadweller.

Growling, Karkat repeated, "I said, ‘is there any business more important than eating nook to Sollux ‘two matesprits’ Captor?’"

The self-satisfied smile wavered if for only a second, and he rolled his eyes as a full-head action. In turn, Karkat’s irritated snarl quirked up into the barest smirk, a curled lip of superiority clinking like those stupid golden bands that he had to be wearing just for him. Who did he think he was going to impress?

"Yeah, actually. I have to catch my fucking breath sometime, you know. A guy like me could drown in all of this attention."

"Is that so? Last I heard from Megido is she's been pretty busy blowing shit up. Psychopathy aside, I doubt she could make time in her night to drown you in the non-literal sense."

"KK, I think you're just jealous that there isn't enough of me to go 'round for three matesprits."

"You can barely handle yourshell, let alone any actual relationships. It's unbelievable that you manage to stay alive on a night-to-night basis. There's no way you have time for a quadrant that requires you to do anything with your useless husk."

"I haven't slept in three days, you would be surprised how much I had time for."

God damn, he had to get to the point before the idea slipped away and got lost forever. He was cool. Totally cool. None of this better-than-you seadweller horseshit was going to get to him; no way. Sighing, in that put-upon way that just about screamed civic duty at the top of its lungs, Sollux tilted his head back and shifted his visor up the bridge of his nose.

He knew that the young Heir was hanging eagerly on his words, waiting for, "I need you to get me an audience with His Imperial Consummation."

And Karkat just looked at him.

There was an uncomfortable pause, and Sollux’s inflated confidence began to tremble.

"You WHAT?" His voice rose shrill, to a screech. He was almost stunned, fumbling for words to explain how much of a festering pool of shit and refuse the very idea of it was- the idea that some worthless blueblooded wiggler could address the purest and most powerful of bloods on a dumb manic whim.

"Look, all I’m saying is that it’s my turn to make my contribution to the empire. To put it in layman’s terms that you’ll be able to understand, I've recently made a major breakthrough- well, major to most trolls, I guess- in efficient energy capture in electrically powered engines, and I want prototypes installed in all of His Imperial's flagships—"

"Sollux, what the fuck are you thinking?"

Sollux shut his mouth with an audible click and blinked at the seadweller in nothing short of confusion. What he was thinking was that he needed to talk to the Emperor and win himself a pretty little life-long loyalty spot as Royal Engineer, and what he was thinking was that Karkat was being unreasonable and far too focused on stupid old grudges and not enough on how important this work was to his future and Karkat's future, and what he was—

"Sollux, glub damn it!" His eyes snapped back to Karkat, looking now more upset than angry.

He cocked his head to the side. "What? Don't tell me you can't get hold of him. I wasn't hatched last fucking perigee, I know he'd just jump at the chance to talk to you."

"You aren't a 'pureblood,'" he tried to remind the blueblood, making dramatic speech talons with his fingers. "You couldn't get an audience with him if you petitioned every heir and emissary for all of eternity. It isn't like talking to me. If you really can't keep all this fluid excitement pent up in your bulge, I'll mention it to him my goddamn self the next time he sends one of his globe-itch checkups my way."

A crackle of electricity split the air, startled him and made him contort his face into an affronted scowl. "I should have known your brain was too waterlogged to understand. This is too important for you to shit away my time by condescending to me like the same scum you were dredged from."

His lips peeling back to display all the harsh serrations of his teeth, Karkat fisted his hands at his sides. It was pointless trying to reason with Sollux when he was in one of these moods; talking to fish would be a more productive waste of his time. Not even smacking him about with the flat edge of a royal sickle could do him much good anymore. So, mustering up all of his rent patience and tugging the pink waistband of his swim trunks up over his hips, Karkat turned and sloshed into the water. The waves would swallow him up.

"Don't walk away from me while I'm talking to you, dickfins!"

The ocean was rolling affectionately up to his mid-thighs, in their old welcoming swells. Fuck Sollux. Fuck all the psionics. He didn't deserve this.

"You ass, KK! Look at me!"

When, against his better judgement, he turned back, Sollux had his visor propped up on his forehead. And he asked Karkat a question.

\-- technicallyAugmented [tA] began trolling crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 21:50 --  
TA: hey  
CA: UGH  
CA: go avvay sol  
CA: you might find this hard to belieVe since you think youre irresistible but i vvant nothin to do vvith your sickly highblood anatomy  
TA: look2 lIIke II got 2omeone on the defen2IIve tonIIght  
TA: what'2 the matter ED? 2omeone el2e knock you down a peg and tell you to fuck off back two your cobwebby lIIttle 2pade2 all alone?  
TA: II'm 2urprII2ed you 2tIIll had 2omewhere two fall from  
\-- crossbowAnarchist [cA] has blocked technicallyAugmented [tA] at 21:52! --  
\-- technicallyAugmented [tA] has unblocked crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 21:52 --  
TA: you know that doe2n't 2top me  
TA: IIt'2 almo2t 2ad that you even trIIed but then agaIIn when aren't you pathetIIc  
CA: vvould you fuck off already  
CA: i knovv you think its all great gut bustin fun to make a game of  
CA: hovv far can i cravvl up amporas nook  
CA: but i dont got time for you  
TA: make tIIme  
CA: oh yeah im sure youd loVe that  
CA: salacious prick  
TA: II'd apprecIIate IIt 2IInce you kIInd of owe IIt two me  
CA: if i eVer ovved a debt to some bellicose split tongued piece a shit like you id cull myself then and there  
TA: better make wIIth the cullIIng  
TA: le22 gape hIInge2 yappIIng more bone2 2nappIIng  
\-- crossbowAnarchist [cA] has blocked technicallyAugmented [tA] at 21:54! --  
\-- technicallyAugmented [tA] has unblocked crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 21:55 --  
TA: really ED  
TA: thII2 II2 gettIIng fuckIIng juvenIIle  
TA: II ju2t had a que2tIIon for you and then your u2efulne22 wIIll expIIre  
TA: no need to explode IIn your dIIaper2tub  
CA: you knovv vvhat sol  
CA: hovv about you take your question and put it so fuckin far up your seedflap that it starts to tickle your protein chute eVery shade a naVy you can think of  
CA: im not gon entertain your inferior mind  
CA: i dont got to play into your impertinent fuckin highblood games  
CA: cause see  
CA: the only reason you cant leaVe me be  
CA: the reason you vvant me so bad it cramps up your bone bulge til the suns meridian  
CA: is you KNOVV my FLORID CARMINE is purer than your thousand Volt cobalt garbage and all the fatuous fuckin haughtiness it giVes you  
CA: an i get that i really do  
CA: you cant bear to accept the truth vvhats right in front of your stupid ass Visor  
CA: so i got no need to force myself to ansvver to YOUR clinquant likeness or ANYONES  
TA: yeah whatever  
TA: 2o where dIId you hIIde FF?  
\-- crossbowAnarchist [cA] is now an idle troll! --  
TA: you lIIttle bIItch  
\-- technicallyAugmented [tA] ceased trolling crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 22:00 --

 

\-- technicallyAugmented [tA] began trolling cabalsCompass [cC] at 22:15 --  
\-- cabalsCompass [cC] is offline --  
TA: god dammIIt  
TA: ugh  
TA: there goe2 my good mood II gue22  
TA: II would wII2h you good luck IIf II dIIdn't thIInk you were beIIng a fuckIIng IIdIIot  
TA: you're goIIng two dIIe FF  
TA: and II kIInd of care about keepIIng you around 2urprII2IIng a2 you may fIInd that  
TA: II could 2hout my2elf hoar2e and you'd 2tIIll be a 2tubborn wIIggler-a22  
TA: 2o unle22 you're goIIng to pull your pan2 out of your wa2te chute II am havIIng no part IIn your 2tupIId poIIntle22 death  
TA: 2o  
TA: .. .. ..  
TA: talk two you 2ometIIme  
\-- technicallyAugmented [tA] ceased trolling cabalsCompass [cC] at 22:17 --

The city bustled at this time of night, trolls purchasing transport pods to attend merit service, visit the temple to beg cleanliness, or simply see to their personal affairs. There was something resplendently bizarre about so many young and adolescent trolls- violent, nasty, brutal little things- living in close quarters without ripping one another limb from limb. In the air, there was ever a visceral current of loathing.

Feferi wore a grey shawl over her head to match the grey symbol of the torturer's rack plastered across her shirt.

Behind her, the communal hivestem loomed, cool grey and impersonal. The only reason she had for returning, now that her lusus was safe and out of the city, was to collect the last of her belongings as quietly as she could. She would miss her crab guardian, of course, but this way it might stay out of danger.

She always tried to take a different route, to throw off anyone who might try to follow her. But, after all of the convoluted twisting and turning, she arrived at the same slightly worn building as usual, a storage stockhive which automatic vendors might visit when they ran low on supplies. Unremarkable building, unremarkable locale. That was the way her friends preferred.

Squat plaster-grey walls closed in around her as she made her way to the discretion entrance around the side of the building and knocked. The door was opened without question for her and she was swallowed up by the stockhive. Inside, the storage space had been converted into soundproofed hallways, the lower levels stretching down and away beneath their feet. There was nothing like having the group's own liberated building, she supposed.

"... within the line of fire, the Second Belt will be occupied, and the Fleet will be unprepared to be outflanked. If we catch them off guard--"

"But how do we know that the grain colonies in the Belt are going to stay reliable?"

"Don't interrupt!"

"Are you fucking stupid? Of course they're going to swing our way. Who do you think shackles those mid-bloods to the harvest planets? Not us."

"-- and as I was saying, the Fleet will not be expecting such a large force so soon, and once we have our hands on a few proper Imperial warships we can transport supplies to the inner planets."

Feferi lowered her shawl, standing at the edge of the high-ceilinged block, filled with clamour and argument and a few meticulously drawn maps. Several trolls stood out among them, all demanding to be heard. There was so much to be decided, and so little time left before those decisions became actions, and there was a terseness, a frantic nature, to the motley group of trolls who took up permanent residence in the base. She couldn't help but sigh.

These were her trolls. Such was her duty.

When they finally noticed her, one by one they fell silent. She glanced at all of them, laughed nervously, and dropped her gaze.

"Sister," greeted someone, followed by a similarly susurrant chorus.

"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. Eridan has been helping me relocate, you know how he is. Would someone like to tell me what’s been decided for now?" She spoke quietly, but with cheek that seemed to sap some of the high-strung discomfort from the atmosphere.

One of the more involved trolls, a brownblood of about 9 solar sweeps, stepped forward to answer, wearing the same almost fanatic look he always gave her. "We’ve determined that the reclaiming of Alternia should begin on the next drone run, two weeks from now. They are scheduled to dock in every major city to collect of-age trolls, and most of them will be in station rather than on their ships. Two will hit port here. Once the drones are dispatched, their ships are ours, and we will be able to ambush the other stations."

Thoughtfully, she nodded along to his explanation- Tontan, was that his name? He continued to speak expansively into the hushed room, about recruiting trolls already off-planet for their cause, especially those enslaved in the gruelling conditions of the farming colonies, stockpiling efficient weapons. Liberation.

"Well," she inquired when he seemed at last to exhaust himself, "have you picked volunteers to board the drone ships?"

The excitement on his face waned. "Not exactly."

Of course not. No troll in her pans would throw herself willingly onto the bridge of a collection ship, whether guarded by a hundred drones or just two. It was, in kinder words, a suicide mission.

Eagerly clasping her hands, Feferi couldn't keep from breaking out into a grin. "Wonderful!"

Awe, confusion, rapt eyes focusing more clearly on her grey and anonymous radiance. There was something more than blood in her veins: something magnetic that was not iron. This was what she was hatched to do.

"Then I don't think anyone will mind if I suggest my own team?"

\-- consumedGerent [cG] began trolling crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 21:57 --  
CG: 6: OKAY, I KNOW IT'S PROBABLY MORE NOOKBREATH DELUSIONS **AGAIN,** BUT WHAT THE FUCK DID CAPTOR MEAN BY 'HIDING' FEFERI? :9  
CG: 6: KELPING HER 'DISAPPEAR?' :9  
CG: 6: I CAN BARELY UNDERSTAND HIM, EVEN WITH HIS NASTY ANGLERFISH-LOOKING TEETH FIXED. :9  
CG: 6: ERIDAN. :9  
CG: 6: SHOULD I BE WORRIED? :9/span>  
\-- crossbowAnarchist [cA] is now an idle troll! --  
CG: 6: YOU LITTLE BITCH. :9  
\-- consumedGerent [cG]ceased trolling crossbowAnarchist [cA] at 22:00 -


End file.
